‘We are inheritors of a rural civilisation’: rural complexity and the ceramic economy in the Indus Civilisation in northwest India

Danika Parikh,Cameron A Petrie

doi:10.1080/00438243.2019.1601463

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhat role do villages play in ‘an urban civilisation’? Although it is likely that most of the populations of South Asia’s ancient Indus Civilisation would not have lived in cities, it is not clear what their rural way of life would have encompassed. Using ceramic assemblages excavated from Indus-period villages in northwest India, alongside ethnographic records on village organization and rural craft production, this paper argues that Indus villages were characterized by rural complexity. This comprised a range of activities, including craft production, as well as short- and long-distance socio-economic links. Drawing on historical narratives, we show how South Asian villages have been essentialized and presented as either ideal or conservative extremes. We argue for the importance of a better understanding of the breadth and nuances of the rural sphere, and for a greater research focus on village life in the Indus context.

Highlights

South Asia has long been viewed as a region well suited to rural lifeways, and while this rural nature has been overly idealized, this view is grounded in some underlying truths
Using ceramic assemblages excavated from Indus-period villages in northwest India, alongside ethnographic records on village organization and rural craft production, this paper argues that Indus villages were characterized by rural complexity
The regionalism demonstrated during the Mature Harappan period across the Indus zone must be taken into account when thinking about small settlements and modelling rural complexity

Summary

Introduction

South Asia has long been viewed as a region well suited to rural lifeways, and while this rural nature has been overly idealized, this view is grounded in some underlying truths. The regionalism demonstrated during the Mature Harappan period across the Indus zone must be taken into account when thinking about small settlements and modelling rural complexity While this table records for instance the presence of fortifications, the nature of these may vary considerably, or in the case of a site like Chanhu-daro, be disputed. While life in an Indus village in northwest India would likely not have been a direct microcosm of life in a city, rural communities appear to have had the benefit of many of the same technological developments and trade networks as their urban counterparts, though no doubt less intensively They were active producers and consumers of a range of products, growing and processing crops There are a number of ways in which rural ceramic production could have been organized, and this is supported by evidence that this could greatly vary between settlements and regions in the Indus Civilisation

Conclusions

Notes on contributors